Just returned from a great trip to Ottawa. There, I had the chance to hold a BlackBerry Diaries Book Event/Tweet Up at Collected Works – a terrific independent bookstore who were gracious to host us -including a photo session I had with Cherie-Lynn Buchanan, for my next book back cover.

As the women began to arrive at the store, they would peek around the long shelf into the back area where we gathered and say, almost sheepishly, “I’m @twittername”. It was a bit like a confession. We’d all go “Oh! So great to meet you! You look just like your avatar…only in a different sweater!”

Originally I wasn’t going to do a formal speech at all, but the bookstore had sort of set up chairs that way, so I started off doing a “why I wrote the book, blah, blah”, but as I have a brain that jumps everywhere, I quickly morphed into a discussion about why I wished I had social networking resources like Twitter when I had my first baby. She’s now 18, away at university, having miraculously survived sleeping on her front, in a drop-down crib, complete with bumper pads. These were the days when I could put her infant car seat in the passenger seat in the front beside me for easy soother popping and is-she-still-breathing-she’s-so-quiet-checking.

I managed to keep 3 other children alive after her as well, and today my youngest is 7, and while I had the benefit of email and Internet when he came along, Twitter was a mere twinkle in a coder’s eye.

So, I took a page from Erica Ehm’s book (who at a recent event asked us all what technology meant to us), and asked the women why they were on Twitter, and what it brought to their lives. Here’s a sampling:

@JudithKane – a financial planner, went on Twitter to provide women specfically with sound financial advice, and quickly became Tweeps with many of the women she connected with. She even managed to diss my author photo from a previous book, we’re such good Tweepfriends.

@Refashionista – while she’s been a social blogger for 6 years (probably one of the first), Twitter brought her conversations to a new 2-way level.

@MissFish – a web designing, blogging journalist, says she knows “what’s going on” now that she has Twitter. She also shared some stats from SavvyMom about Ottawa Moms – an overrepresented group in terms of being connected and online.

@OttawaMom – admitted her husband said “get on it”, she thinks so that she’d talk to friends instead of him! And it worked. Good one, hubby.

@LiteMochaMom – on a maternity leave and originally went on Twitter for work purposes as she’s developing a social media strategy for them, but got hooked personally.

@CLBuchananPhoto – said her business simply wouldn’t be where it is today, without Twitter. For her, Twitter is not about work, but NetWORKing. I met her through Twitter, and a book cover photo is born:)

@Kelly_Roesler – a self-admitted “Twitter Failure”, who, after listening to all in the room is going to take a new look at using Twitter for business and personal use.

@CandaceDX – while Twitter has helped her business profile immensely, she admits the main reason she’s on is because she laughs every single day. We’ve shared many exchanges about her poor judgment in hand held devices. (See Candace, this blog is a one-way communication.)

@Japman_Bajaj – the only male brave enough to venture into this group, agrees he laughs every day reading Twitter, and says it simply helps him get through the day sometimes. “Twitter will change things for you.”

@SmartSpaces – a professional organizer raising kids from 9-29, being able to interact, share and help others, besides her corporate clients, has been wonderful.

@BitofMomsense – loves blogging, twittering, sharing stories about whether full day kindergarten is the best or the worst thing, or any other mommy related topic.

@KelliDaisy – with four kids aged 7 and under, Kelli is Queen of the “flyby Tweet”. She loves the interaction, and says that Twitter has taken her in directions she never would have dreamed of…like blogging about celebrity gossip for Erica Ehm’s Yummy Mummy Club.

It seems many started Twitter for business reasons, and quickly developed personal relationships, or vice versa. It is a unique social networking experience that spans both worlds. As Cherie Lynn said to me, “I know that I have Twitter friends, correction, REAL friends on Twitter, who would come to support me over some of my real-life friends.”

I can back that up 100%. The Tweeps made up 99% of the women in attendance that night.

I’ll blog about why there is so much trust on Twitter in a later post.

Thanks Ottawa. I’ll be back.